Revisiting National Life Expectancy: The Effect of Including Prenatal Deaths in Canada

Conventional practices and contemporary international standards for calculating life-years from live birth incorporate a subjective notion of social desirability, wherein only the lifespans of individuals deemed socially acceptable are included in these assessments. These assumptions mask low life-year deaths of socially undesirable humans and obscure results of medical and environmental interventions, thus falsely indicating higher life expectancies for a population. To provide a more comprehensive understanding of national health trends, this study introduces a methodology that incorporates individuals considered socially undesirable into life expectancy estimates. A case study is presented for Canada to evaluate the national life expectancy and planned prenatal deaths from 1970 to 2020. When accounting for pregnancy terminations, the actual life expectancy is approximately 65.8 years—16.7 years less than the 2020 estimate of 82.5 years, reflecting a 20% decrease. The maximum difference of 20.5 years occurs between the official estimate and the revised life expectancy in 2002. From the results it is evident that published Canadian life expectancies are incorrect. A comprehensive global investigation is required, along with a refinement in life expectancy calculations that avoids bias by accounting for life expectancy of both socially desirable and undesirable humans.